2009… this year can be said as a year full of changes, as well as learning experiences. It’s a year of welcomes and goodbyes, of beginnings and endings.

The end of school life

The year started off with me being in the midst of doing my Final Year Project. While I had done a few attachments, and also had a little lab experience prior to this, it was the first time that I had a project of my own. My work was not related to that of the others in Mark’s lab, and it was tough in the sense that I couldn’t ask the others for help on the theory. But Mark was very patient and encouraging, and despite encountering problems with my project, he taught me that encountering a problem doesn’t mean that it’s the end of the road. Are you going to be disappointed and give up just because you got stuck, or are you going to be optimistic, and try to find out where the problem lies? In order to be in this field, you’ve got to be of the latter kind.

Having to do a project within about 4 months is not easy, and while we are technically not expected to produce a bunch of results in order to get a good grade, who doesn’t hope that their work would produce something? That just adds to the stress, and to be honest, and times it was really frustrating and depressing. There were times when I felt that I was pushed close to my limit. But above all the negative things, I’m more thankful for all the people who were beside me, supporting and enouraging me throughout the whole period. That gave me the push I needed to continue trying my best no matter what.

This is one of my favourite songs, and I enjoyed this rendition by Il Divo, though I noticed that the lyrics in the second verse are slightly different from the original. I hardly ever hear the second and third verses being sung though, or is it just that we tend to only sing the first verse in church? In any case, that doesn’t matter. We’re less than an hour away from Christmas itself, and let’s take some time to think about what Christmas is truly about. Have a blessed Christmas everyone!

Amongst the recent offerings by HDB, I think this one looks the best!

A view from the inside

Of course, these pictures are just artistic impressions, but it’s the amount of space in the units that I like! The standard units have more or less similar floor areas to the flats built in recent years, but the loft unit is much bigger!

It would be nice to be able to live in a house like this someday…

For some reason, I haven’t been sleeping well recently. I have dreams practically every night, and even though they’re not nightmares, they still disrupt my sleep.

Saturdays are the only day where I get to sleep in, and while I managed to get a good rest last week, it wasn’t the case today. I dreamt about so many different things involving different people, and by the time I woke up, I felt really really tense. I dreamt that I met Wan’e and Jasmine at Vivocity, and I was looking at watches because mine was going to spoil soon. I dreamt that I met a few people I knew from secondary school as they were heading for some event, and then suddenly waves were coming in and flooding the open space, and we were all trying to get away so that we wouldn’t drown. I dreamt that I went to work late because I overslept, and when I reached work, MH was away and YW was doing something else.

To add on to that, I would feel giddy Whenever I flipped around in bed today. At first I thought that could have been part of my dreams, but I realised that it wasn’t so when I opened my eyes and saw the ceiling spinning. Sigh. I really wonder what’s wrong with me. Could it be because I have too many things on my mind? There’s a Sunday School lesson to plan for tomorrow, and I wanted to get it prepared before I go out later in the day. Work wise, I’m still stuck on cloning. I’ve repeated it a few times already, trying to change different things each time so that I can actually get clones with my insert, but until now, nothing has worked. I’m not the only one having the problem though, and I don’t know whether I should be comforted by that fact or not. I can’t be reporting the same thing each time during our lab meetings!

Oh well, I’ve just got to keep trying, right? Take things one at a time, and finish them up one by one.